Tuesday, March 31, 2009

On April 2nd the G20 summit will begin, at this stage we have no idea what the meeting will bring, nor indeed do we know what time it will start. For a different take on the day I have taken the traditional technique of the Planetary hours to take an overview of the symbolism of the day and how it might progress.

The Planetary hours is a system in which one of the seven traditional naked eye planets is given rulership over each day. From sunrise to sunset the day is divided into 12 equal parts called 'hours', with each hour being ruled by a different planet following the Chaldean order of slowest to fastest from a geocentric point of view, ie Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Oreaching the Moon the cycle begins again. Each day begins at dawn with the planet that rules that particular day of the week also ruling the first hour.

Thursday is a Jupiter Day and, as explained above, the day begins at dawn with a Jupiter hour. As Jupiter rules a nation's wealth and banks and bankers it seems a fitting day to hold this summit, which looks to promote international financial stability and economic growth.

Jupiter is in the 11th house, the hopes of the nation, so the day of the summit starts with a mood of lots of optimism and hope and a focus on growth. Aries rises, and although Mars is in Jupiter ruled Pisces it has no essential dignity and is in the 12th. So there may be an aura of general bonhomie about the day, but it is in effect being undermined by what is already going on behind closed doors. Pluto, the ruler of hidden wealth is conjunct the Midheaven, so the day is marked by the symbolism of profound change. With Scorpio on the 8th cusp, tax havens may no longer be tax havens by the end of the day.

Our second planetary hour is ruled by Mars, which is now in the 11th house. Though the hour begins at 7:43 the members of this summit are quite likely beginning to put on their 'public face.' As Venus ruled Taurus is rises. But Venus is in detriment and intercepted in the 12th. Thus showing a day where the poor state of the world’s economy is being highlighted.

64 minutes later and it's the hour of the Sun as Gemini Rises, Mercury has some slight dignity by being in Aries in it's own terms, though it is combust and still in the 12th so the time is not yet good for wheeling and dealing, or for trade and commerce. Though with an exalted Sun our leaders are putting on a good front.

And yet another planetary hour passes taking us into the Venus hour. We still have Gemini rising but Jupiter and Neptune now straddle the MC. Amongst other things Neptune rules socialism, mobs and secret plots. We know that demonstrations are planned for this particular day, so this may well be when the first demo takes place.

And The fifth planetary hour at 10:55 is a Mercury hour. With Cancer rising and a dignified moon on the ascendant, this would be a good time for the summit to officially begin. The Mercury hour could well indicate the eyes of the media being focused on the events.

Our next planetary hour is that of the moon, which is now in the 12th house, thus highlighting the fact that the summit is not an open meeting but is being conducted behind closed doors. But note also Jupiter and Neptune are in the 8th and so the focus of the meeting could well be on the aforementioned tax havens. Uranus on the MC could indicate yet another disruption by protesters.

By 14:04 we are into the hour of Saturn, with Saturn in Virgo this is when the summit members get down to the nitty gritty of the meeting. And what an excellent time to do so and to try and reach agreement, Leo is rising and the exalted Sun is on the Midheaven. Quite possible one individual will take the lead at this point.

Negotiations should continue to go well as we again meet Jupiter as we enter the 8th planetary hour. Leo is still rising and the Sun is still in the 10th. Jupiter is in the 7th close to the descendant highlighting foreign affairs and charitable relationships with other countries, so this could be good news for the world’s poorer countries.

Mid afternoon sees another Mars hour, with the latter degrees of Leo rising. It is during this hour that the 11th house moon will perfect a square to the 8th house sun. Negotiations which have been doing OK for the previous couple of hours could now stall Any potential solution to the financial crises that will be agreeable to the public may be difficult to come by.

As Virgo rises, so we reach a Solar hour, with Mercury and the Sun sitting together in the 8th house. This is probably a time of critical negotiations with the financiers, possibly centred on tax or trade.

The Venus hour still sees Virgo rising and Mercury in the 8th. Throughout the day Venus and Mars have been in mutual reception, perhaps indicating that everyone has their own agendas here. Now, with Venus in Aries in the 7th things are getting heated as summit members vie to get their own agendas negotiated. The Moon perfects a trine to Mars during this hour indicating that some items would have been concluded successfully.

The planetary hour leading up to sunset is another Mercury hour. Libra rises and with Mercury and Venus in the 7th this is quite likely when the meeting will end. On the surface all will seem pleasant and negotiations would seem to have gone well.

With Moon in Cancer squared to the Sun, Venus and Mercury in Aries, but trined to Mars in Pisces and Venus squared to Pluto, the G20 meeting is likely to be characterised by many expressions of genuine concern, but will struggle to find any fundamental and effective agreement. With Saturn retrograding in Virgo opposed by Mars in Pisces, across the 10th / 4th house, consensus will be difficult to find. Mars building to conjunct Gordon Brown’s Jupiter early on 4th April shows just what is involved when seeking to save the world.

The Aries planets say it all. It is too early to be clear. It is rather like looking for a new relationship too soon after the painful ending of the one before. By yearning for and seeking what has been lost, world leaders are in danger of making the same mistakes again. We need a really different "lover"! A wise outcome will be to realise it is early days and we need to respect and draw on the collective wisdom of all. We have needed stimulus plans to help ordinary people through their immediate economic pain, but to see this bouncing the world economy back to “health” is a major delusion. A radical realignment of the world economy lies ahead. This Aries meeting can do no more than kick start a 15 year process of fundamental economic realignment.

On 31st January 2009, just six days before the second Saturn / Uranus opposition; Gordon Brown at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland told those, who had created or presided over the world economic crisis, that there was no previous historical experience of what was happening. Essentially, they had to learn what to do next from what happened next! The astrology both questions and confirms his words.

This time we must learn from past errorsHe is wrong because in the past, as now, we have always had the astro-cycles to help us see through the nature of mass-delusion, but have chosen to ignore them. Elements in the South Sea Bubble, 1835-42 and 1929-1933 depressions and their aftermaths offer many lessons we can draw on. To start with, these experiences show the futility of the early talk of "weathering a downturn in the economic cycle" and attempts to manipulate early recovery. Certainly, it is not the first time that we face a stage in the cosmic cycle that exposes our hubris and over-reaching arrogance. Belief in endless growth and something-for-nothing characterised all three previous boom and bust periods. Until we use astro-cycles as early warnings in our culture, the same mistakes will be made by future generations.

Yet he is right in that this is the first time, due to our industrial mechanical science-driven economy, that the deception of endless growth has been extended so globally. Pluto has returned to Capricorn (symbolises death and regeneration of business structures) for the first time since 1762-77-the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. For a decade and a half ahead, we face a radical reassessment of our achievements over the past 250 years. Nor is it an unconnected coincidence that this happens in the midst of threatened global ecological disaster. Our inventive arrogance led us to assume we can change the earth – even explain and invent every aspect of life itself. We have boasted of defeating limitation. Did we really think we could force Saturn to serve our childish experiments? We have tried the patience of the natural order. We now face a period of at least 15 years, while Pluto transits Saturn’s sign, to learn the true nature of structure and responsibility.

The changes are even more radical than this. This Pluto return is the longer 500 year alternate return dating back to early 16th century. When this occurs, in the 80 years before all the outer-planets follow very similar paths in the zodiac as well. As in the 15th/16th centuries, the Pluto-in-Capricorn period casts aside inadequate assumptions and abuses of trust by those in power. Enlightened forces of public education know better. In 15th/16th century, it was the development of reading and translation into the vernacular. In the 20th/21st centuries, it is the internet. This earlier time was, of course, the very seed point of modern science. So, we face a radical reassessment of the nature of that science and its role in society’s decision making processes. Hopefully this time, we will not see centuries of conflict and repression, but the old and new will welcome each other in, cross fertilise and restore success and balance.

Abandoning the simplistic notions of growthPluto and Saturn dominating and correcting Jupiter-like excess will make it clear why we need to reject the notion of growth as the measure of success and failure, happiness and unhappiness. It will be difficult for economists and politicians to do so. After victory in World War II, expansion, consumption and especially "growth" replaced "victory" as the elixir of happiness offered by all who sought success in public life. On offer was "growth", where everyone could have what they wanted at the expense of no one – even the richest person in the world would not have to pay. In time, "growth" would make everyone happy – even the poorest African peasant. Brilliant economic minds and business theorists devised complex financial systems to manipulate the balance sheets and hide the real price each person was paying. Buying now and paying later offered early enjoyment. Exploitation and its consequences were too distant in place and time to be of concern. Enjoying the fruits of luxury, but not yet having to pay was seductive. It was only a matter of time and education, before everyone who accepted democracy and global free-market capitalism would be well fed and live in peace.

Pluto’s ingress into Capricorn comes after a period from 2001, when the sign's ruler Saturn opposed Pluto, Neptune and then Uranus. Now the price of ignoring these warnings cannot be avoided. Finally we face the nonsensical inadequacy of "endless growth" as a solution to anything. The longer our economist "experts" and the politicians that listen to them focus strategies upon this lost cause, the more pain and disappointment they and we will experience. In this sense, Gordon Brown is truly right. It is new. Technology is so powerful and the world is so interconnected that growth as he understands it can no longer be sustained

Sunday, March 22, 2009

On Saturday 21st March, Ireland won both the Triple Crown and the Six Nations Cup having won all of the five matches in the championship, for the first time since 1948.

In the bi-wheel below, the Irish Chart (Proclamation of the Republic, 1916) is shown in the inner wheel with the starting time of the final match in Cardiff shown in the outer wheel.

The Moon at the start of the match was at 3 AQ 41, the exact degree and minute of the Irish North Node and also approaching conjunction with the transiting North Node. As the Moon in the Irish chart is conjunct the North Node, and Ireland is approaching a nodal return and the start of a new cycle, the flavour of Moon conjunct North Node is being strongly emphasised. In connection with the victory, the Moon signifying the mood of the people may have helped to spur on this team (AQ) and influence the direction of the match. However given the fated quality of the nodes and what I personally call their domino effect, there seems to be a suggestion that this victory will have a longer lasting effect than just giving the country a much-needed lift at a difficult time.

The MC of the match chart is at 19 GE 33 in a close conjunction to Irish Venus at 19 GE 31. The Venus in the Irish chart rules the Sun and MC, which could be interpreted as the aims and objectives of the moment being in line with those of Ireland. The Venus is in the eleventh house of a nation’s hopes and dreams, which according to Mundane Astrology, is the house of friendly nations. So perhaps it is fitting that this victory occurred in Wales, who after Scotland, is our nearest neighbour with whom we share a language and a tradition.

Transiting Jupiter at 17 AQ 05 had already opposed the angular Irish Mars and will go on to conjoin the Uranus end of Mars-Uranus opposition and the DESC, the opponents. Jupiter, the planet of success, which rules the Irish 5th house of sport, is activating Mars the planet associated with competition, and that strong willed opposition across the fixed ASC/DESC axis.

This team was determined to upset the opponents, the reigning champions, and win.In addition to the transits of the day, progressed Jupiter is exactly conjunct the Irish Sun now, so success, enthusiasm, optimism, and hopefully not just in the sporting arena.

This article appears on the Astrological Association's Website. Check out our other news items by clicking here...

Friday, March 20, 2009

We will be acknowledging 'International Astrology Day' and encouraging those interested to join in the celebrations with the Astrological Lodge of London, who will be gathering in their usual pub – the Union' at 88-90 George Street, London W1U 8PA from 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM on Saturday 21 March for a few drinks together. We hope you can join us. Turn up any time in the evening and you will find astrologers celebrating together.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Correlation is the premier Journal of astrological research, and has been in print for over 30 years, carrying papers from all the world's major researchers. Its remit accords with the standard academic requirements that all submissions are peer-reviewed by suitably qualified experts in the fields of astrology, physics, statistics, etc. These requirements can be daunting, and may well put off many AA members, who have great experience of working with astrology on a day-to-day basis but may hesitate from submitting their own thoughts or findings for publication due to a lack of familiarity with the appropriate methodology -or just not having the time or access to sources of data. If this is your situation, then the editor of Correlation wants to hear from you.

Over the coming issues the editor will offer space for AA members to propose new areas of research that may spark off ideas amongst Correlation's subscribers who do have the skills and the time to explore their potential and take them forward. So what would you like to propose?

While you do not have to frame your proposal in any formal way, and so there is no requirement to state any particular methodology, it is always useful to think through your proposal as carefully as possible so as to make your suggestions as clear as possible. Also, keep your definitions clear and simple because these will be the things that you will test (or research). For example, if you think that writers of detective fiction might have Mercury/Pluto aspects in their charts, you might want to consider a couple of important points. For starters, what do you mean by an 'aspect'? Traditional aspects or Quintiles, Septiles, etc? And what is a 'detective writer?' While Agatha Christie certainly fits the bill, Graham Green and Dostoyevsky also wrote much on the psychology of the murderer. Would you expect Agatha Christie -whose work is somewhat short on psychology but ace when it comes to 'clues and plotting'- to have the same patterns as those writers who are more concerned with the extreme consequences of human frailties? If an astrological signifier for 'clues and plotting' is the main idea, then might this be better found in the charts of people who compile crosswords, while Green and Dostoyevsky could be more at home with Freud and Jung? If your definitions have blurred boundaries the chances are you will end up with a blurred answer. So check out what's already been discussed, and find out about the research that has already been done (you can then build upon it) in your specialist area of interest in one of a few databases of astrological research papers that is free to everyone, just log on to www.astrology-research.net

Wittgenstein observed that the clearer you make the question, the closer you are to an answer. But Wittgenstein also stated something even more important, that one cannot say what is a useful question to ask until one has tried to answer it. In other words, ideas that at first glance might seem extremely odd (like Galileo questioning if the Earth was really the centre of the Solar system) might have profound consequences. So there's also room on Correlation's pages to challenge the status quo. with similarly 'odd' ideas. So, over to you. Leave your comments here or visit this article on the AA website for further details as to how to give us your feedback.

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